The Divine Liturgy in Las Vegas, NV, December 31, 2006

The last day of the 2006 calendar year in Las Vegas
On the Sunday of the Holy Fathers, ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, December 31, 2006, at St. Simeon the Myrrhflowing in Las Vegas, the last 2006 calendar day, the Hierarchical Liturgy was served by His Grace Bishop Maxim with concelebrants Fr. Uros Todorovic, parish priest, Hieromonk Jovan (Babic) and deacon Ozren Todorovic.
On this Sunday, we commemorate all the righteous ones from Christ’s genealogy according to the flesh, and by remembering these Old Testament saints, we affirm the historical reality of the Church’s New Israel in which we all become a part of Christ’s genealogy of the New Testament.
Las Vegas (often informally and shortly called “Vegas” or jokingly “Lost Wages”) is the most popular city in the state of Nevada (Nevada,Clark County) internationally known as a vacation, fun, shopping and gambling destination. The city was founded in 1905, officially becoming city in 1911. Las Vegas is the largest USA city founded in the 20th century.

After Divine Liturgy, the parish priest, Fr. Uros Todorovich, together with the members of the Church Executive Board, introduced and explained the plan for building of the new church. The church will be in the Serb-Byzantine style, designed by renowned architect, Oton Urban, who offered his design and assistance as a donation to the church. Parishioners with their priest have a blue print of the church, the building permission of the local government, and most importantly the unity for undertaking the construction endeavor. Priest Uros, who arrived to Las Vegas exactly sixteen years ago, ministers to his flock which is comprised mainly of Serbian refugees from Bosnia and Krajina. The parish was founded in 1979, with a group of American-born Serbs. In 1983 they organized and built the parish center, with a chapel for services and other necessities. In this spirit, the parish existed until the nineties (the years affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia). The new immigrants are from Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly from Zenica and Sarajevo.

This Sunday of the Holy Fathers introduces and brings us upward into the paradoxical mystery of Christ’s genealogy according to the flesh. He who is the only-begotten Son of God the Father before all ages, was born in time from the Mother, without the father. This Sunday, the emphasis is on the ancestors of the Mother of God who prefigure the Messianic character of Christ. The emphasis is that Christ is a descendant of Abraham, the father of the Hebrews, the chosen people of God, and that He is a descendant of King David. This way in Christ, the prophesies made by Old Testament prophets who awaited the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise that He will send the Savior as King David’s descendant, as the chosen seed of the chosen people, are fulfilled. The divinely inspired Evangelist Matthew in the first chapter of his gospel, lists all the names and generations (unusual names at first glance) with the intent to show us the meaning and historicity of our Lord, by going back to his ancestors, King David and patriarch Abraham. This way we are reminded of the holy lives of these righteous people, but also of their struggles, sins, and yes repentance.
In this way we understand our status in the history of salvation, by being fully aware that temptations come upon us as waves of history, but also knowing that repentance brings us back to Christ, to His New Testament genealogy. When we feel overwhelmed by temptations and passions, our Lord reminds us that the Old Testament righteous, once commemorated on this Sunday, also went through the same, except they were at the end victorious. Their lives show us how dynamic and alive man’s relationship with God is.

Pictures:

1. Las Vegas at night
2. Divine Liturgy in St. Symeon the Myrrhflowing, Las Vegas, Nevada
3. Divine Liturgy (detail)
4. Divine Liturgy (detail)
5. His Grace Bishop Maxim, Fr. Uros Todorovic, Fr. Jovan and the members of the Church Executive Board